The present invention relates to an illumination system for passenger cabin illumination, and in particular to a light module, a light-module carrier and an illumination system, as well as to an associated method for intelligent illumination so that easy reconfiguring of cabin illumination may become possible.
General illumination hitherto used in a passenger cabin of an aircraft, and in particular of an aeroplane, has been implemented by devices in which there are a data bus interface, the control electronics and the illumination means themselves. These devices come in particular lengths and with a particular functional extent (white only, white plus a color, white plus a color mixing system). In these arrangements, brightness levels and colors may only be controlled along the entire length of a lighting unit.
The installed lighting units together with their respective positions and the functional extent are deposited in a configuration file in the control computer. Control is by way of a central control computer. The light device itself is connected to the computer by way of corresponding transducer boxes. In this arrangement each light device has its own connection to the transducer.
The design of lighting units in use today may make it possible only to a limited extent to implement a color-/brightness gradient along the length of the cabin because gradation along the length of the lighting unit may be predetermined. As a result of the lighting unit type being determined in the configuration in the control computer, the use of some other lighting unit type at some position is always associated with a change of this file. For example, if the first lighting unit is changed in accordance with requirements related to the number of passengers, and if in that position some other type of light device is installed that differs from that of the adjoining class, then this type of light device has to be adjusted accordingly. In the case of different types of light in the different classes the flexibility of the cabin design may be limited by the length of the light devices, provided the functional extent of the light is correspondingly to agree precisely with the cabin layout.